Current production crop harvesting machines of the type having platforms for cutting a wide swath of standing crop are equipped with various crop converging apparatus designed for aiding in the conveyance of outboard severed crop toward conditioner apparatus located across a central crop discharge region of the platforms for receiving and conditioning the cut crop. One production platform, for example, includes a plurality of conveyor drums located at each side of the central crop discharge region and mounted for rotation about respective upright axes, with an outermost drum at each side of the crop discharge region being mounted for rotation with the outermost cutter disc, and with other drums being located where the crop condition have developed various apparatus for converging outboard severed crop. Such converging drums are disclosed in each of U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,581,362 and 7,165,381.
The following is a list of different converging apparatus used on current production crop harvesting machines of the stated type together with a disadvantage associated with the stated converging apparatus:
1) An undershot converging auger located behind and extending parallel to the cutter bar, having the disadvantage of not lifting the crop off the rotating cutter discs, resulting in the crop being re-cut and in increased power consumption;
2) U.S. Pat. No. 8,161,719 discloses an overshot converging auger having an axis that extends parallel to the axes of rotation of the conditioner rolls, having the disadvantage of the crop delivery paths of the opposite end sections of the auger are not direct;
3) A pair of outboard, vertical axis converging drums are provided at the opposite sides of the header and used together with an inboard stub auger having an axis that is parallel to those of the conditioner rolls, having the disadvantage of crop sometimes becoming wedged between the drums; and
4) Three outboard vertical axis converging drums are arranged along a line extending inward and to the rear from the adjacent side, having the disadvantage of crop sometimes becoming wedged between the drums.
What is needed then is a converging apparatus which overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages of the known converging apparatus.